One benefit of working at home: It’s been about a month since I filled my gas tank and I still have a little under a quarter of a tank left.
One drawback of working at home: I’m going a little stir crazy. Other than trips to the gym and to the grocery store, I haven’t gotten out much lately. I’ve probably said this before, but this town is so boring. I’m glad to be leaving.
I think I’m going to the movies this weekend. Haywire looks really good and it’s getting good reviews. I’m interested in Red Tails as well. Watching the Golden Globes this past weekend made me realize that I slacked off on movies last year. That’s partially because a lot of movies I’m interested in don’t play in Starkville, but it’s also because it’s a lot easier and cheaper to stay home. Maybe I’ll go to Columbus and do some shopping as well.
Here’s my list for 2012. Hopefully I’ll have an even better success rate than I did in 2011.
Listen to music more. I want to try to get back into music like I used to be.
Read 20 books. I read 17 this year according to Goodreads. 20 should be doable.
Go to a Halloween party. I’ve never been to one or even dressed up for Halloween. That needs to change.
Go to a Christmas party. I’ve never been to one of these either.
Buy new clothes. I shouldn’t have any excuses not to this year. I want to buy a few nice things while I’m at it.
Meet new people. I should meet plenty of new people in Portland.
Do social gaming. Whether it’s board games or online video games, I want to game more with other people. Playing with by myself gets old after a while.
Start buying collectibles. I want to grow my collection of geeky items. I have Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Dexter-related items, but I want more.
With everything going on lately, I had kinda forgotten that Christmas happened this year. Since neither my mother and nor my sister were in Jackson this year, I didn’t even go home. It’s the first time I’ve ever spent Christmas alone. I wasn’t completely alone. Reese is always here, but you know what I mean.
What did I get this year? I got Darksiders on the Xbox 360 and the first book in the Dresden Files series from a friend. I got usual movie theater gift cards from my boss at MSU before I left there. I got the Dresden Files TV series from a kind friend on Twitter. I participated in Twitter Secret Santa again this year and got an awesome USS Enterprise pizza cutter. I don’t think I’m going to use it. I think I’ll keep it as a collectible. If last year is any indication, my sister will probably find the time to send her gift to me around February.
Overall, I just wasn’t into Christmas this year. I hope it’s different next year. I hope that whether I’m in Oregon or Mississippi I get to spend Christmas Day with people I care about.
It’s the time of year for reflection and introspection. I figured I should look back on the list of things I wanted to do in 2011.
Move. I decided not to move to a new place in Starkville, because I was pretty certain I would be leaving Starkville. I’ll be moving to Portland in February. Not quite 2012, but close enough.
Go to my first convention. I went to San Diego Comic-Con in July and had a blast. If I don’t go back this year, I may go to one of the Seattle-based conventions.
Keep exercising. I kept up the good work I started last year. I’ve lost about another 40 lbs this year. Hopefully, I can maintain my good habits in the new year.
Buy new clothes. I bought a few pairs of jeans and some underwear before Comic-Con, but other than that I didn’t do so well. Losing weight gave me an excuse not to buy more. The jeans I bought are already feeling a little too big. I’ll do better next year.
Learn something new. I learned some new stuff for my old job and I’ve already started learning new stuff for my new job.I think that counts.
Meet new people. I met a lot of people at Comic-Con, but I didn’t meet any local people. I can’t wait to get out and start meeting people in Portland.
Listen to music more often. I did well at this at the beginning of the year. I even unsubscribed to a lot of podcasts. At Comic-Con, though, I met a lot of podcasters and started listening to all of their podcasts. I’ll work in that next year
Blog more. Once again, I started out well, but slacked off. I lot of times I do have things to say, but by the time I get around to writing about it, it doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. With all the changes coming in the new year, I’m sure I’ll be blogging more.
I think I did well for the most part. Soon I’ll come up with a list for 2012.
Speaking of things that aren’t in Starkville. Last week my friend John texted me that a PetSmart was opening in Columbus (about 25 miles away) last Saturday, which was a week ago today. He said that he would be there with his dog, Bailey, and suggested that I bring Reese. I had no idea this store was opening. I hadn’t been to Columbus in several months. I’ve wanted to take Reese to a PetSmart and spoil him for a while now.
I got there with Reese a little after they opened at 9am. John was already there with his cousin, her partner, and all of their dogs. There were so many people and so many dogs there. Like John said, it was like Comic-Con for dogs. The place was packed and it was cool being around so many pet lovers. A lot of them wanted to pet Reese and Bailey. My biggest concern was that sometimes Reese doesn’t listen to me when he sees someone he wants to play with, but he was on his best behavior. He was trying to run off every 5 seconds, but at least he listened when I told him come back or keep going. Eventually I got a cart and we put Reese and Bailey in there. It was much easier to get around the store that way.
The store gave away some free toys and treats. I got a few items for Reese that I had planned to order from Amazon. We stayed away from the adoption area, which is good because I didn’t need to come home with another dog. PetSmart had a picture area in one part of the store and they stopped and asked us if we wanted to get out picture taken for free.
I can see myself using this store a lot for as long as I’m in the area. It’s nice to have a good pet store nearby.
Last Wednesday, I had a cold and took a day off work. I went to Walmart to get some medicine and get a copy of Attack the Block on blu-ray. Attack the Block is a British sci-fi film that a lot of geeks were going crazy about earlier this year. It never played here in Starkville. It came out on video last Tuesday. I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that Walmart didn’t have the blu-ray and only a few copies of the DVD. I guess Walmart didn’t get many copies because people around here aren’t big on blu-rays or British sci-fi movies. They couldn’t have sold out in 1 day, could they? Grocery stores and drugstores do have some movies, but I doubt that they would have this one. Sam Goody, Blockbuster, and Movie Gallery have all closed. Redbox probably won’t have it for another 28 days if at all. I went home and ordered a copy from Amazon. I’m so tired of having to order everything I want online because Starkville doesn’t have any place that sells them. No real bookstore, music store, video store, electronic store, or clothing store. I don’t mind paying a slightly higher price than I would online if I can drive to a local store to get what I want.
It’s not just shopping that I can’t do in Starkville. When I needed surgery, I had to drive 2 hours and then drive back a week later when I was still recovering. When I was having trouble hearing in one ear, I had to drive 1 hour to Tupelo to see a specialist. When my doctor wanted me to get a spot on my skin checked out, I had to drive to Columbus and the earliest appointment I could get was over a month away. When one of my teeth was hanging loose and causing me a lot of pain, I had to wait a week before I could see a dentist. Since most medical services that are available in town are only open 8-5 on Monday – Friday, I have to take time away from work whenever I need to see anybody. Maybe I’m kidding myself to think it would be different in a bigger city.
I guess I’m just talking myself into leaving Starkville. I can think of many other reasons I don’t like this place anymore. I need to go. It might not be Austin like I had dreamed at one point, but that’s fine.
By the way, Attack the Block was really good! Check it out!
I just spent about an hour working on my Amazon Wishlist. I use the wish list to remind myself to by stuff later. It ends of saving me from a lot of impulse spending. Some things I decide I don’t want and some things just aren’t at the top of my priority list. I reduced my list from 445 to 32 items. 32 is a more manageable number and I may actually purchase all of the items in my lifetime. I’ll probably circulate this list around Christmas. Maybe I’ll get lucky.
I wonder what the items on my wishlist say about me. Hmm.
We had an exciting day yesterday, but not in a good way. Bad weather is one of the most exciting things that happen around here, and it’s not the kind of excitement you want. I’m just now getting a chance to see the videos of the tornado in Tuscaloosa yesterday. They got hit hard. Smithville, MS, which is north of here, is two-thirds gone.
The weather here never got that bad as far as I know. We mostly had to deal with inconveniences. The whole Golden Triangle area (Starkville, Columbus, and West Point) at least lost power around 4pm. I don’t know how all this works. Apparently, the Tennessee Valley Authority supplies power to this region. Somewhere they suffered damage, and that caused us to lose power. At first I was hearing on Twitter that it would be 2-3 days or longer before we got power back, but it ended up taking about 8 hours.
Being without power made me once again realize how dependent I am on technology. It’s not just that I couldn’t watch TV or use the Internet on my laptop. I also couldn’t cook or go get food. The few places that were open probably couldn’t take debit cards, so I wouldn’t have been able to pay for anything. I was certain that the university would have power back because of the Maroon Alert updates I was receiving on my phone, so I figured that I might have to go back to work even though I didn’t have power at home. But I didn’t have much gas in my car and didn’t know how I would get some. Luckily, we got power back. Before it got too dark, Coldstone Creamery gave out free ice cream rather than let it melt. It was fun to get out of boring house for a little while and be around a large group of people.
I’m glad that things have settled down today. I’m tired of the bad weather that we’ve gotten at least once a week this month. Hopefully, that’s it for a while.
Spring is my favorite time of the year. I hate cold weather and I love warm weather, so I get excited when it starts to warm up again. I also like that people wear less clothing and I get to smell freshly cut grass again.
I was very excited when the weather got warm recently, but then it got cold and rainy. I think it’s supposed to get better for a little while this weekend. I can’t wait for a little stability!
I’m not going to lie. It is nice that people are noticing that I’ve lost weight. Unlike the last time I lost a bunch of weight, this time it’s happened all the right way (I think). I’ve had a few people ask me what I’m doing and my answer has been 1) exercise and 2) eating better.
Exercise It always takes me a while to get in a good pattern, stop making excuses, and start exercising on a regular basis. For me this happened when I was on vacation around Labor Day of last year. Since then I’ve been doing cardio for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Now I’m used to going 5 days a week. It’s part of my normal routine on those days. There are times when I don’t want to go, but I do and I feel good after I finish.
Eating Better I refuse to give up any of the foods I like or count calories. I just have to keep everything in moderation. Even after I started exercising, I noticed that I was eating enough for 2 at dinner each night and I was eating too much junk at other times. Now I’m only eating enough for 1. I still get to eat my chicken, burgers, steak, pasta, etc. I don’t snack much throughout the day. When I do, I tend to eat peanuts, apples, or a small piece of candy. I used to eat 1 or 2 packs of Reese’s Big Cups a day, but now I might have 1 a week. I don’t eat fast food often these days. I rarely eat meals prepared outside home. This has been fun because I’ve learned to cook a lot of good meals. Also, I don’t drink soda much anymore and I don’t really miss it. I drink lots of water, juice, and tea instead. Saturday tends to be my cheat day. That’s when I’ll eat fast food with a Dr. Pepper and have a Reese’s at some point during the day. Another benefit to eating better besides weight loss has been the money that I’ve saved. I estimate that I’m saving around $150 a month on food. That more than pays for my gym membership.
So, that’s what I’ve been doing. It may work for everyone, but it’s worked for me. It’s all been worth it.
P.S. – The next time someone asks me what how I’ve lost weight, I’m going to say cocaine, diet pills, and cigarettes just to see their reaction.
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